A Golden Opportunity

Here in the United States our new president is not so new anymore. The honeymoon is over, so to speak. Mr. Obama is struggling with real world issues that require real solutions rather than easily dispensed campaign trail promises and feel-good speeches. The rubber is on the road and he needs some serious traction control.

I’m not a huge fan of most of the policies and positions this president espouses; however, he is the duly elected president of my beloved country. It is in the best interest of the country – and therefore me – that he succeeds rather than fails in his job. Therefore, I sincerely hope he is successful, despite my own misgivings. It is in that spirit that I want to point out a missed opportunity to President Obama. Maybe he follows my blog. Do you think? Well, maybe it will get to him somehow. If you are reading this and know Barry, ping him on Facebook or something and clue him in.

I’m going to tread lightly on this subject because it touches on a topic that people get skittish about – race. Barack Obama is a black man. Well, at least he looks like a black man. That’s the gist of my discussion. Obama has physical characteristics shared by humans of African descent. He has dark colored skin, dark hair and dark eyes. He looks like a black man. Under the covers, however, he is genetically only half black. His mother is a white woman. Here’s where the golden opportunity comes in. To explain why I think it is so golden and such an opportunity, let me back up a little to my own upbringing.

I was born in a small town in upper eastern Tennessee. Nearly everyone in that town in the 1960s and 1970s was white. The only time I ever saw a black person they were on TV. Flip Wilson and Redd Foxx were my windows into that part of the world where black people lived. In short, I was ignorant. I stayed that way for a long time. Don’t get me wrong. My parents were good, loving people who taught me to avoid prejudice and treat everyone fairly. I was not raised by Klansmen or outright bigots. We all just suffered from a lack of education about people outside our cultural bubble. My guess is that many Americans suffer from this same lack even today.

It’s important to point out that ignorance is no respecter of persons. In other words, it works both ways. Anyone who has seen the excellent film “Crash” has been enlightened to the fact that bigotry and prejudice know no color. Humans bearing any combination of melanin, hair color, hair type, eye color, eye shape and any other racially influenced physical attribute are susceptible to racism – both as a victim AND as a perpetrator. It all stems from familiarity and the fear that flows from the lack of familiarity. If I perceive you to be like me, then I am less threatened by you and more likely to accept you and your viewpoints. That’s just human nature when it is allowed to roam freely without knowledge and truth.

This phenomenon was exceedingly apparent in the 2008 presidential election in the United States. According to data reported by The Guardian newspaper, 95% of black voters voted for Barack Obama. Only 43% of white voters did. While I am sure there are some legitimate political reasons for part of this data, it appears obvious that some people voted either for or against Mr. Obama based on the color of his skin. I am of the opinion that the Democratic Party and the vast majority of the American media really did the country a disservice by magnifying the race issue in this election. What they should have been doing is pointing out that a candidate of mixed ethnicity like Mr. Obama could unite the two major racial groups in the United States by bringing a unique perspective to the whole topic of race relations. Obama’s mother is white. His father is black. He grew up having to deal with whatever consequences his genealogy carried with it. Things are somewhat better nowadays, but when I was a kid, being a mixed race child would have definitely been a disadvantage from a social standpoint.

Barack Obama could have taken “The Dream” of Martin Luther King and carried it to Dr. King’s ultimate goal – a world where people of all colors could live and work side by side without even thinking about skin color. He could have magnified his overall humanity while downplaying his physical appearance as a black man. Humanity is more important than race. Unity is more important than separatism. Red, white and blue are more important colors than brown, tan and pink (or whatever color Caucasian skin is.) It was a golden opportunity. It could have truly united this country. As I said before, I am no fan of President Obama’s ideals. That’s just a difference of opinion. However, if he was going to become president, it would have been great to get a side benefit of racial harmony in the bargain.

You blew it Mr. President. It’s not too late, though. There’s still time to leverage your racial heritage in a positive way for this country. I hope you somehow eventually stumble upon this little essay and decide to do just that.